soy diary

11/11/2005: "excitements around SOY"

My girls were so excited on Monday that they saw me at the marathon, and they kept talking about it to everyone. Rikako saw me in Williamsburg, Yuri was in Greenpoint and caught up with me again in the Central Park, and Yukiko was at mile 25. Ikko san came and said Kazu saw me in Sunset Park and called him right away. Ikko san was on First Avenue and then on Fifth Avenue uptown. Many many more people cheered me on along the way by calling, 'Go SOY!' because I had a headband with 'SOY.' Next year my girls want to have a SOY cheering section together. That will be another reason to run again.

Last week new front help Mariko joined force. On her first day, a musician customer sitting at the counter invited us to his gig coming up. When I asked him what his music is like, he said it's a little bit like Sonic Youth. Mariko's face lightened up. "I love Sonic Youth!" "Oh yea, they come here to eat." I showed her the picture on the wall of Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon. She was super thrilled. It was only about 15 minutes later when Thurston himself walked into the door. He was playing down the street at Rothko. You can imagine how excited she was - she was so nervous she couldn't even look at his face in the beginning, but took up a courage to talk to him at the end. She had a picture taken with him and it totally made her day. I think she's going to stay with us for a while. Thank you Thurston.